Sidney Kelley

1806-1888 · Barre VT

Born 1806, Barnet, Caledonia County, Vermont

Died 1888

Father: John Kelly

Mother: Mary Cheever

Children include Julia

Sidney Kelley was born at Barnet, Caledonia County, Vermont, on 16 September 1806, a son of John Kelly and Mary Cheever. His parents had come to Barnet from Dracut, Massachusetts.

He was a carpenter. He was also a good fiddler, and played for the young people of the countryside at huskings and apple bees, the gatherings where neighbours husked a harvest of corn or pared a harvest of apples together and danced afterwards. The family record of 1923 says that "in his long walks with his violin he met with many adventures," and that he was a great reader.

On 1 January 1833 he married Nancy, daughter of Thomas Hendry. The family record calls them "somewhat migratory." They lived at Ryegate, then in Canada, then at Leicester and Brandon in Rutland County, Vermont, where the Hendry family lived. Their daughter Julia later said they had left Canada because of the insurrections there, the rebellions of 1837 and 1838 against British rule.

Their children were Silas Andrew Jackson and his twin sister Julia Ann, born in 1837 or 1838; Thomas Hendry, born in Canada on 21 July 1838; and Charlotte M., born at Brandon on 9 December 1848. Charlotte died of accidental burns on 14 November 1850. Nancy died at Brandon on 21 October 1851, aged 35.

Silas became a sailor. He went to the West Indies and South America, cooked for an expedition to the far north, and drowned near Seattle on a date the family never learned. Thomas rode as a government relay dispatch rider in the far West, had "many encounters with Indians and bandits," and built bridges in Arizona before he came home to die in 1882.

Sidney went back to Barnet. On 1 December 1864 he married Annabell, daughter of Joseph Gilfillan. She died in 1875, aged 56. Sidney died at Lancaster, New Hampshire, on 21 February 1888, aged 81.

He is buried in Barnet Center Cemetery. His white marble stone reads SIDNEY KELLEY, SEP. 16 1806, FEB. 21 1888, with ANNABELL, HIS WIFE, below, and his son THO. H. KELLEY at the foot.

Parents

Mary Cheever

John Kelly

Children

Julia Ann Kelly 1838-1923

Sources

Caledonian-Record, St. Johnsbury, Vermont, 31 January 1923, p. 3, "McIndoe Falls. Death of Mrs. Julia Roy"; clipping on Find a Grave memorial 241536067, added by Anne, 2022.

Find a Grave, memorial 46660167, Barnet Center Cemetery, Barnet, Caledonia County, Vermont; photograph added by Laurie, 2021.

Frederic Palmer Wells, History of Barnet, Vermont (Burlington, 1923), Kelly genealogy corrected by Rev. C. B. Bliss, pp. 512-513; HathiTrust wu.89067958520.

Frederic Palmer Wells, History of Barnet, Vermont (Burlington, 1923), Henry or Hendry genealogy, p. 494; HathiTrust wu.89067958520.

Frederic Palmer Wells, History of Barnet, Vermont (1923), Kelly genealogy corrected by Rev. C. B. Bliss, pp. 512-513 (HathiTrust wu.89067958520); Caledonian-Record, St. Johnsbury, 31 January 1923, p. 3, obituary of his daughter Julia Roy; Find a Grave memorial 46660167, with stone photograph.

If Sidney Kelley is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Sidney Kelley (1806-1888)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/sidney-kelley-1806-1888-38b19e.